UIE's Christine Perfetti interviews two User Experience experts on Building and Managing a Successful User Experience Team.
On "selling" UX in an organization:
Another common pitfall is when a new UX team promotes yet another methodology on top of all the other methodologies within the organization – a development methodology, a change management system, a quality system, etc. Most organizations we know are weary of the ‘methodology du jour’ and want to get on with churning out what they need to churn out. Therefore, the best approach is to do UX ‘by stealth’. Figure out how to fit in what you need to do within the context of what already happens – that will make it seem much less imposing and more beneficial to all concerned.
On setting up a team:
The best place to start is by understanding your organization. It may seem obvious how a UX team can benefit your organization, but it’s very easy to fail. We recommend starting with an organizational analysis designed to help you understand the most effective way to set up the team.
On getting "buy-in" from departments:
Stakeholders need to have an ongoing role in the project beyond simply providing input at key milestones. We recommend holding stakeholder workshops to collect their broad range of wants and needs. This allows you to identify the business drivers that can be balanced with those of users.
and from senior management:
Above all, we find it most effective to tie the results to real business objectives, even to what is most important to the senior managers. What is their next bonus tied to? What’s the one thing that’s going to jeopardize the executive’s BMW? It’s that thing that becomes the critical success factor for the project owner! The ‘beemer’ principle is absolutely relevant in our context, too. If you can tie the benefits of UX design to that (which you often can), you’ll certainly get their attention.
On disseminating usability findings:
Finally, it’s important to take time to emphasize the positives as well as the negatives. Unfortunately, often our job is to tell people that ‘their baby is ugly’. That can be very difficult to take. Therefore, although the suggestions often need to be strong (as opposed to "it
would be good if you would consider possibly changing this to…"), you should definitely also provide feedback about things that work well about the design. The last thing you want is for your UX team to be
simply seen as the voice of doom and gloom.
On staffing the UX team:
UX team members need to value consistency (but not be a slave to it!),
pay attention to detail (yet not dwell on it incessantly), and be pragmatic. Across the board, it’s important to find people who are good listeners and communicators, good facilitators, and excellent team players.
